Psalm Meditation 865
Second Sunday After Epiphany
January 15, 2017

Psalm 89 (selected verses)
1 I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
2 I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah
19 Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said: “I have set the crown on one who is mighty, I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found my servant David; with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21 my hand shall always remain with him; my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him, the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him; and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’
27 I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him, and my covenant with him will stand firm.
29 I will establish his line forever, and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
30 If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my ordinances,
31 if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with scourges;
33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love, or be false to my faithfulness.
34 I will not violate my covenant, or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35 Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.
36 His line shall continue forever, and his throne endure before me like the sun.
37 It shall be established forever like the moon, an enduring witness in the skies.” Selah
52 Blessed be the LORD forever. Amen and Amen.
(NRSV)

When we make promises to others, even to ourselves, it is our intention to keep those promises. Sometimes our most heartfelt promises get changed by unanticipated events people and events. A particular promise was the right one to make at the time and then we discover all manner of hidden parts and pieces to our now intertwined lives that make the promise difficult if not impossible to keep. A promise is made in the context of a relationship and when that changes, so does the meaning of the promise. We discover that making promises is a lot easier than keeping them.

Other times we keep the promises we have made even though the folks to whom we made the promise don’t see it that way. A promise to love and care for someone does not mean that we will accompany them on whatever nuthatch scheme they conceive, even when they claim it is all for us. God promises to love David and his children forever, no matter what. God also promises that if any of those children wander off the path of statutes and commandments there will be a price to pay. The price will be the consequence of the behavior. As a mentor taught me, “We are not punished for our sin so much as we are punished by our sin.” God keeps the promise to love us as including the part about not protecting us from the cause and effect parts of our actions.

The parts of this psalm that I edited out for this time are the ones in which the psalmist complains that God is punishing the people by ignoring them, by allowing them to be overrun by enemies and adversaries. God is keeping the promise of steadfast love, including the part about punishment, maybe even discipline, in the event of people having broken the rules.

January 9, 2016
LCM